GTP Farce

[Crash Test]

Where has all credibility gone from the sport? Not only did the ofificals make a massive cockup, and attempt at covering their mistake, they decided that they would completely rearrange the results the day after the race. **** OFF!

Here's the press realease... it's times like this i see why so many carefree oldies get involved in lawn bowls...

OLDEN drivers Peter Floyd and Cameron McConville were declared winners today of the
V.I.P. Petfoods 2-Hour Showroom Showdown, 17 hours after the race finished at Mount
Panorama, Bathurst.

Revised results were announced this morning by stewards from the Confederation of
Australian Motor Sport after an overnight review of timekeepers' records.

Gary Deane and Robert Rubis, in a Subaru STi, were second and third place went to Mark
King and Rod Wilson, in a Mitsubishi Evo V.

"It may have been delayed, but I'm thrilled to take my first Bathurst win whenever it
happens," Floyd said. "Our Commodore GTS has run superbly for three days, Cameron did
a great job to put us on pole position and we ran a trouble-free race."

The fifth annual race for near-standard passenger cars had been awarded immediately after
the finish to the Mitsubishi pair Graham Alexander and John Woodberry, but they were
relegated to fourth in the revised results.

The stewards initiated an inquiry after approaches from race officials, competitors and GTP
organiser PROCAR Australia.

"Some irregularities in race control occurred during a safety car period which materially and
incorrectly affected the outcome of the race," according to a stewards' statement today.

The incident that led to the errors was a crash and fire involving the works Volkswagen
Beetle of Formula Ford champion Will Davison at the Dipper, on the steep descent from the
top of Mount Panorama.

The stewards said that when the safety car was called out to control the race field, the teams
that initially were awarded first, second and third - Alexander/Woodberry, John Bowe/Chris
Dunn (Ford Mustang) and Bob Hughes/Tony Quinn (Mitsubishi) - gained an advantage
which was corrected in the revised results.

"While we cannot absolutely restore the position prior to the errors . . . we have made some
adjustments which reflect a fair and reasonable outcome for the event," they said.

PROCAR Australia spokesman Craig Denyer said he was pleased the situation had been
resolved in favor of the true winners.

"Once the race starts all control is handed from the GTP organisers to the Confederation of
Australian Motor Sport and their officials. Unfortunately, due to the serious nature of a fire
which marshals had difficulty controlling for a number of laps, fundamental errors were made
during the safety car period and some cars were given an unfair advantage," Mr Denyer said.

"Race control's primary concern in arresting what could have been a major incident led to the
safety car picking up the wrong lead vehicle on lap 13.

"The consequences of this error have been corrected in the revised results and the real and
deserved winners have been recognised. I must add this takes nothing away from the
performance and achievements of any competitors, including those who have now been
relegated; they did not contribute to the problems."

The revised results involved only the leading group in the 45-car field and positions in four of
the five classes were not affected. Floyd and McConville won the outright Meguiars Top
Marques High Performance class.

Alexander, a former rally driver from Geelong, set the pace when he bolted from third on the
grid to first within metres of the start, splitting the all-Commodore front row of Floyd and Ed
Aitken/John Faulkner.

Quinn and King followed and the order remained until the safety car was called out on lap 13
for six laps.

Aitken, last year's winner, retired with transmission problems as the race resumed on lap 19
and soon afterwards Hughes was directed into the pits for two stop-and-go penalties.

Woodberry took over the lead as the race headed into the final stages, but came under
pressure from John Bowe, who had quietly worked the Mustang through the field into second
place.

The Mitsubishi driver, who usually is Alexander's race mechanic, responded with a lap record
of 2 minutes 30.78 seconds and was able to defend the lead as Bowe slowed to conserve
fuel.

The final drama occurred when Hughes failed to make the last corner and hit the safety
barrier. However, he was able to reverse out and save third place at the finish.

Competition in the classes featured strong performances, with the Poolrite V8 Touring class
Commodore SS of Scott Loadsman/Ian Luff finishing an impressive 15th outright. Luff's son
Ian paired with Robert Chadwick in a Mitsubhsi Magna to win the Poolrite 6-Cylinder class.

Wayne Russell and Steve Cramp drove their BMW 323i to first in the Hippies Sports
Touring class, while first in Poolrite 4-Cylinder class went to David Russell and Nathan
Thomas, in a Proton Satria.

RESULTS:

1. P. Floyd/C. McConville (Holden Commodore GTS) - 41 laps
2. G. Deane/R. Rubis (Subaru Impreza STi) - 41 laps
3. M. King/R. Wilson (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo V) - 41 laps
4. G. Alexander/J. Woodberry (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo V) - 41 laps
5. J. Bowe/C. Dunn (Ford Mustang Cobra) - 41 laps
6. P. Polites/N. Cunningham (Holden Commodore GTS) - 40 laps

Meguiar¹s Top Marques High Performance: P. Floyd/C. McConville
Hippies Sports Touring class: W. Russell/S. Cramp (BMW 323i) - 40 laps, 18th outright
Poolrite V8 Touring: S. Loadsman/I. Luff (Commodore SS) - 40 laps, 15th
Poolrite 6-Cylinder Touring: R. Chadwick/W. Luff (Mitsubishi Magna) - 39 laps, 22nd
Poolrite 4-Cylinder Touring: D. Russell/N. Thomas (Proton Satria GTi) - 38 laps, 26th

Fastest lap: J. Woodberry 2 min. 30.78 sec.

[RaceTime]

Hehe - where did you pinch that from? <g>

On a serious note - I received an email from the Timekeepers at Bathurst late Sunday stating that the Official Results had been issued from an Excel Spreadsheet and that the data and results could not be provided to me or displayed on the Natsoft site because of this format.

I have asked for the Spreadsheet version and the individual lap times and I can 'adjust' the times to reflect the issued result.

As I said in UseNet - the mistake they made was trying to correct the mistake in the first place. They shoud have LEFT the cars on the track, with the extra lap, and simply removed a lap from the timing data - it can be done, has been done before and no doubt will be done in the future.

By trying to fix the problem by issuing a stop/go they ensured it could never easily be fixed.

IMHO this is where lack of experience is beginning to show in Race Control and particularly Timing (but, as I said - this is MY opinion).

Until some of the peole that run the sport face the fact that personalities and politics must be removed, this sort of thing WILL happen again.

[Wrex]

This is the most stupid thing I have ever heard (awaiting results of Federal Election for a new winner ).

How can this be so bloody difficult, the cars go around in circles and never leave the race track. Is it that hard to keep track of them?

[Crash Test]

But then there would have been dramas if the Hughes/Quinn car had to do an extra lap, and ran out of fuel on that one....9th place for them was absolutely no justice at all....

[D.R.T.]

Changing the results 17 hours after the conclusion of the race and most importantly the podium celebrations is weak.

[RaceTime]

Hang on guys - get this in perspective.

hughes et al would NOT have had to do another lap if they had done nothing. They would all have been shown as being one lap in front of everyone else on the monitors at the end of the 2 hours. So far no problem (other than having an extra lap).

Before the results are issued - the lap on which they were told to go through the safety car is deleted - again no problem - this sort of thing is often done when a lap is disallowed - normally in Qualifying though.

In this scenario, all that was needed was 3 (or 4) laps to be removed and problem solved...

Wrex - something HAD to be done because the officials had well and truly 'fixed' the race by allowing the cars to go past the safety car and effectively giving them a lap on everyone else.

Using your example - this would be like giving the Libs (or Labor) an dadditional 10,000 votes in an electorate that they shouldn't have been given.

[mac]

I must say I was impressed with John Woodberry's drive.

[mtpanorama]

We were sitting at the chase and I wondered why the leaders came past us twice before I even saw the safety car. Even sitting beside the track you could tell there was something wrong.